timcarlos
04-20-2005, 04:22 PM
I was delighted to see this as my mother is from Argentina and I was born there, and know some of the small group of heroes who have fought for years to bring the military to justice- Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. They are one of the most respected human rights organisations in the wolrd, composed of the mothers of the "disappeared", and they can be found at http://www.madres.org/ if you are interested.
I don't think this old man will be getting out of prison alive somehow - so Adios Adolfo and don't come back.
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High Court condemns "death-flight" captain Scilingo to 30 life sentences
Landmark ruling against Argentine involved in military crackdown on leftists
El Pais Spain | ANDREW EATWELL
Madrid
Spain's High Court sentenced a former Argentine navy captain to 640 years in prison Tuesday, in a historic ruling that marks the end of Spain's first trial for crimes against humanity committed in another country.
Adolfo Scilingo sat impassively and bowed his head as the sentence was read out yesterday morning, at the end of the three-month trial, in which the court heard testimony from dozens of victims of Argentina's 1976-1983 dirty war, led by the military junta against left-wing dissidents. Scilingo was found guilty of helping to kill 30 people on two so-called death-flights in 1977, in which the drugged and naked prisoners were thrown from planes into the Atlantic Ocean.
"Without a doubt this is an historic sentence from an historic trial," said Carlos Slepoy, a lawyer representing the dirty war victims who filed the case. "We are very satisfied."
Though the victims had sought a sentence of 9,000 years, and had accused Scilingo of genocide, torture and terrorism, the court said his offenses were better described as "crimes against humanity." The verdict sentences him to 21 years for each of the 30 people killed in the death flights, five years for torture, and five years for illegal detention.
Under Spanish law, the maximum term Scilingo will serve in prison is 30 years.
The ruling by the High Court, which has asserted its powers to try suspects for human rights abuses committed anywhere in the world if Spaniards were among the victims, is open to appeal, and Scilingo's court-appointed defense lawyer has said the case will be taken before Spain's Supreme Court.
Defense attorney Fernando Martínez Morata said in his closing arguments that his client was being made a "scapegoat" for the crimes committed during the dirty war - an estimated 30,000 people were killed by the junta - and was being made to answer for all the atrocities simply because he had shown "remorse."
Scilingo has been held in Madrid since 1997, when he voluntarily came to Spain to testify in an investigation led by High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón into the death flights. Garzón, who rose to international fame for his attempt to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to trial, ordered the former navy captain's arrest and pressed charges for genocide based on his testimony, which had first been made public in 1995 when he admitted to a journalist that he had participated in the murders of dissidents.
"They were unconscious. We stripped them, and when the flight commander gave the order, we opened the door and threw them out, naked, one by one. That is the story, and nobody can deny it," Scilingo is recorded as having told investigative reporter Horacio Verbitsky in evidence heard by the court.
The court verdict yesterday adds that "as a morbid joke, they made the prisoners dance to Brazilian music." It also points to the other atrocities carried out by the military junta at the Navy Mechanics' School - the infamous ESMA - in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, and recounts how children were tortured in front of their parents, how pregnant women were detained and their babies stolen, and how officers burnt victims' flesh with electric cables in torture sessions referred to as "barbecues."
In his comments to Verbitsky in 1995 and to Garzón in 1997, Scilingo said he had been moved to speak out about the crimes out of remorse, and had hoped that his testimony would serve as the basis of a broader investigation into the dirty war leading to the indictment of the senior Argentine military officers involved.
In 1998, a year after he was placed under arrest by Garzón, Scilingo retracted his confession, and ever since has argued his innocence, claiming that his testimony was an elaborate lie. "Never! Never! I never took part in the death squads," the former captain declared on one of the rare occasions that he spoke during the trial.
Although the junta leaders were tried after their regime fell in 1983, they were pardoned in 1990. Several of them, however, are now under house arrest in Argentina on charges related to the abduction of political prisoners' young children. The government of President Néstor Kirchner also succeeded two years ago in repealing legislation that shielded junior officers involved in the dirty war from immunity. According to Human Rights Watch, around 100 people accused of crimes committed under the junta are now indicted in Argentina.
In the wake of Scilingo's sentence, the High Court is now due to host the trial of Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, another Argentine former navy captain, who was allegedly involved in the killings of dissidents.
http://www.elpais.es
I don't think this old man will be getting out of prison alive somehow - so Adios Adolfo and don't come back.
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High Court condemns "death-flight" captain Scilingo to 30 life sentences
Landmark ruling against Argentine involved in military crackdown on leftists
El Pais Spain | ANDREW EATWELL
Madrid
Spain's High Court sentenced a former Argentine navy captain to 640 years in prison Tuesday, in a historic ruling that marks the end of Spain's first trial for crimes against humanity committed in another country.
Adolfo Scilingo sat impassively and bowed his head as the sentence was read out yesterday morning, at the end of the three-month trial, in which the court heard testimony from dozens of victims of Argentina's 1976-1983 dirty war, led by the military junta against left-wing dissidents. Scilingo was found guilty of helping to kill 30 people on two so-called death-flights in 1977, in which the drugged and naked prisoners were thrown from planes into the Atlantic Ocean.
"Without a doubt this is an historic sentence from an historic trial," said Carlos Slepoy, a lawyer representing the dirty war victims who filed the case. "We are very satisfied."
Though the victims had sought a sentence of 9,000 years, and had accused Scilingo of genocide, torture and terrorism, the court said his offenses were better described as "crimes against humanity." The verdict sentences him to 21 years for each of the 30 people killed in the death flights, five years for torture, and five years for illegal detention.
Under Spanish law, the maximum term Scilingo will serve in prison is 30 years.
The ruling by the High Court, which has asserted its powers to try suspects for human rights abuses committed anywhere in the world if Spaniards were among the victims, is open to appeal, and Scilingo's court-appointed defense lawyer has said the case will be taken before Spain's Supreme Court.
Defense attorney Fernando Martínez Morata said in his closing arguments that his client was being made a "scapegoat" for the crimes committed during the dirty war - an estimated 30,000 people were killed by the junta - and was being made to answer for all the atrocities simply because he had shown "remorse."
Scilingo has been held in Madrid since 1997, when he voluntarily came to Spain to testify in an investigation led by High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón into the death flights. Garzón, who rose to international fame for his attempt to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to trial, ordered the former navy captain's arrest and pressed charges for genocide based on his testimony, which had first been made public in 1995 when he admitted to a journalist that he had participated in the murders of dissidents.
"They were unconscious. We stripped them, and when the flight commander gave the order, we opened the door and threw them out, naked, one by one. That is the story, and nobody can deny it," Scilingo is recorded as having told investigative reporter Horacio Verbitsky in evidence heard by the court.
The court verdict yesterday adds that "as a morbid joke, they made the prisoners dance to Brazilian music." It also points to the other atrocities carried out by the military junta at the Navy Mechanics' School - the infamous ESMA - in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, and recounts how children were tortured in front of their parents, how pregnant women were detained and their babies stolen, and how officers burnt victims' flesh with electric cables in torture sessions referred to as "barbecues."
In his comments to Verbitsky in 1995 and to Garzón in 1997, Scilingo said he had been moved to speak out about the crimes out of remorse, and had hoped that his testimony would serve as the basis of a broader investigation into the dirty war leading to the indictment of the senior Argentine military officers involved.
In 1998, a year after he was placed under arrest by Garzón, Scilingo retracted his confession, and ever since has argued his innocence, claiming that his testimony was an elaborate lie. "Never! Never! I never took part in the death squads," the former captain declared on one of the rare occasions that he spoke during the trial.
Although the junta leaders were tried after their regime fell in 1983, they were pardoned in 1990. Several of them, however, are now under house arrest in Argentina on charges related to the abduction of political prisoners' young children. The government of President Néstor Kirchner also succeeded two years ago in repealing legislation that shielded junior officers involved in the dirty war from immunity. According to Human Rights Watch, around 100 people accused of crimes committed under the junta are now indicted in Argentina.
In the wake of Scilingo's sentence, the High Court is now due to host the trial of Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, another Argentine former navy captain, who was allegedly involved in the killings of dissidents.
http://www.elpais.es